Issue 11 - December 2010

 

Welcome to the winter edition of our newsletter

Despite the cooler weather and darker evenings we hope that you continue to walk and cycle through the winter months and for those less inclined the Teddington car share scheme may be an interesting alternative. In this issue we will be covering the items discussed at the last meeting including presentations on the future of the Teddington Travel to Work Network, an update on the Teddington car share project, Smarter driving events, Smarter Travel Richmond’s TRY B4 U BUY scheme and the winter cycle challenge being run by SWELTRAC. We hope you find the newsletter both informative and interesting. We would also like to warmly invite everyone to the Teddington Travel to Work Network Christmas drinks being held on Wednesday 15th December from 17:30pm at the Teddington Arms in Teddington. We hope to see you all there!

All presentations from the last meeting are now available to download from the Teddington Website, here.

Award-winning

We are delighted to announce that at the recent London Cycling Awards, Teddington Bike to Work Week 2010 was awarded the winning prize for Best Cycling Event. The judges stated that they were particularly pleased to see businesses proactively working together to promote cycling. Further details on all of the awards from the night is available here. We were also pleased to see an article on the Bike Week published in the final edition of TfL’s Smartmoves magazine, see pages 10 and 11 here.

November meeting

The latest network meeting was kindly hosted by Pinewood Group at Teddington Studios. Graham Clarke, Pinewood Group Environmental Services Manager welcomed everyone and gave a brief overview of Pinewood Group’s history and facilities. The Group consists of Pinewood Studios, Shepperton Studios and Teddington Studios. The facilities include 34 stages, 5 digital television studios, 5 digital presentation studios, audio post facilities, preview theatres, backlots, gardens & woodland for outdoor shooting, one of Europe’s largest exterior water tanks, a dedicated underwater stage as well as full production support services on all sites.

Pinewood Group, with 200 staff at their Teddington site, has been a member of the Teddington Travel to Work Network since early 2009. Graham went on to describe a number of sustainable transport initiatives Pinewood Group have introduced over the years including Pinewood Pedal - an annual cycling event for staff and families, the introduction of shuttle buses with satellite tracking on smart phones and at the bus stop at Pinewood Studios, the promotion of the Teddington car share scheme at all sites and the CRC energy efficiency scheme – energy saving, smart meters and recycling options.

Update from Network Members

All companies who attended the latest meeting were given an opportunity to share any updates or progress concerning their individual travel plans:

1. Tearfund carbon reduction agreement with Ecotricity (100% renewable energy). Ecotricity have their own wind farms and produce 100% green energy. They are number 1 when it comes to investment in green energy.
2. LGC has extended the Teddington car share scheme to other offices within the UK and a guaranteed ride home policy has been put in place. LGC will shortly be resurveying staff to review the travel plan.
3. St Mary’s University College has just finished surveying students, with over 4,000 responses. Diane McVey passed on very positive feedback on the recent cycle maintenance course run by Richmond Council.
4. Haymarket Media Group had positive feedback from the recent smarter driving course but raised concerns over the advertising. Marlon Yearwood, the new lead on Haymarket’s travel plan was welcomed to the group,
5. NMO also recently held a car share event and have produced a case study to be used by Liftshare. NMO are currently resurveying their staff in order to update their travel plan.

Round Table

Councillor Clare Head, Cabinet Member for Traffic for the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, was invited to the meeting. Network members expressed their disappointment to learn of the demise of SWELTRAC. SWELTRAC had provided an opportunity for direct dialogue with the council, which has resulted in a more positive relationship between organisations and council than had been in the past. Councillor Head invited businesses to email her with regards to any transport issues that they may have. Councillor Head’s contact details can be found here. Councillor Head mentioned the Local Implementation Plan funding proposal and a number of initiatives that will be funded including workplace grants, accident prevention programmes as well as car club bays. Andrew French expressed disappointment that the Teddington Network’s letter of support for SWELTRAC has not been acknowledged by the council. Cllr Head stated that she will find out progress to date.

The group was very pleased to hear that Cllr Head had recently signed off the proposal for a pedestrian crossing on Hampton Road near the entrance to NPL. Cllr Head stated that her role is to work on behalf of local people and 80% of local residents wanted the crossing so it was an easy decision to sign-off.

The group reinforced that in order for the network to sustain it needs a long-term representative from the council. Cllr Head suggested that she would be the representative and noted the date and location of the next meeting.

SWELTRAC Going Forward

Jakub provided the group with a brief overview of the Teddington Network’s history from its inception in November 2007 to the present. As a result the Teddington Travel to Work Network has achieved a 7% reduction in single occupancy car use with a total of 11 travel plans being developed. In addition there have been two Teddington Bike to Work week events, the launch of the Teddington car share scheme and Dr Bike and Cycle Maintenance course project.

From April 2011 the existing 14 sub-regional transport partnerships will be replaced by five new partnerships based on the London Plan sub regions. There will be one South London Transport Partnership and it will be up to the boroughs to decide whether business travel plan support will continue. Therefore, beyond March 2011 there are a number of potential scenarios including travel planning being included in the new partnership and continuation of support, there may be a need for a borough officer to attend and support network activities or there is no commitment from council and the network self-sustains.

Car Sharing

Kevin provided the group with an update on the recent car sharing promotional events. SWELTRAC attended a total of seven promotional events before and during the Liftshare Week (4th - 8th October). The events provided an opportunity for staff to learn about car sharing and the potential benefits. Each event was tailored to suit the organisation with some occurring during the morning as staff arrived at work, while others were held during the lunch period. The events were promoted using bespoke posters, leaflets, banners and postcards. Along with the promotional material, merchandise was also given to those staff members that signed up to the car share event. Merchandise included umbrellas, A-Z London maps and Maglites.

Overall the events proved to be a great success. A total of 119 staff members signed up to the car share scheme during Liftshare week, taking the total member-base to 158. SWELTRAC also received a certificate of recognition from Liftshare for successfully encouraging and enabling more car-sharing with the Liftshare week campaigns. Using the Liftshare system we have started contacting potential car share matches based on staff home postcodes. In addtion if you would like to organise another car sharing promotional event for your organisation or would like to use our promotional marketing material please contact Nick.

Smarter Driving

Rebecca Bear and Aimee Clark from the Energy Saving Trust gave a presentation to the network about Smarter Driving Lessons. These lessons provide a number of business benefits including cutting carbon emissions, reducing wear and tear on company vehicles and savings of £200 - £250 per year. The courses cover a number of areas including gear changes, tyre pressure, reading the road and many more.

Smarter driving simulator events can be run for free at any organisation on completion of 350 Travel Energy Check surveys. These can be online or paper and normally take between 3-5 minutes to complete. For more information please contact the Energy Saving Trust.

TRY B4 U BUY

Alice Baddeley from Smarter Travel Richmond (STR) gave a presentation to the group about STR’s TRY B4 U BUY scheme. This scheme gives people unsure about cycling the opportunity to give it a go without having to purchase a bicycle. People will be able to use a bike for free for up to three weeks and they can choose from folding or non-folding bikes.

The scheme is a partnership between Smarter Travel Richmond, South West Trains and Evans Cycles. The scheme is no strings attached and participants will receive free maintenance during the period and bike / accessory discount vouchers are offered by Evans. In order to participate in the scheme, just provide the names of interested staff to workplacetravel@richmond.gov.uk, print off the brochure that will be emailed to you and collect your bicycle from Richmond station. There will be no need to check your bike in for the three-week period.

STR has agreed to open up this offer to organisations to trial a bike as a pool bike for a three-week period. All parties have agreed to waive the £50 deposit for Teddington organisations taking up this offer. If you would like to trial a Brompton or non-folding bike for three weeks, please contact Nick for more details.

Winter Cycle Challenge

It is safe to say that the Teddington Cycle Challenge, run during November, was a resounding success. 7 organisations took part, with 121 staff cycling 5,600 miles. As a comparison, an equivalent pan-London challenge run in the relatively tropical month of October 2009 had just 167 staff participants, cycling a total of 6,380 miles. This is a testament to the fantastic work done by all Teddington Network organisations to promote cycling.

The overall results of the challenge are shown below, with the winner determined by the highest average mileage cycled per employee (overall mileage / total number of staff).

Organisation	Participants	Total mileage	Average
Byrne Group	9	737	15.68
NMO	8	414.7	5.76
Tearfund	30	1407	4.69
NHS Richmond	10	421.5	2.81
NPL	32	1372.5	2.29
St Mary’s	21	581.7	1.75
LGC	11	665	1.33

So congratulations to Byrne Group for the phenomenal effort of the 9 team members in cycling an average of over 80 miles each in just a week. Team Byrne Group will win a bikers' breakfast and additional Dr Bike session. Special praise also goes to Timothy Wilkes of LGC for cycling further than anyone else – 239 miles in just a week!

Cycle computers have been sent out to most of the participants but apologies to St Mary’s for the delay in theirs, due to the exceptional participation level in the challenge we have had to order in more computers. These should be with us shortly.

If anyone has any feedback on the challenge, please contact Nick.

Farewell

It is with sadness that we are saying farewell to two members of the SWELTRAC Team. After four years of dedicated service Jakub Bojczuk has decided to take up an opportunity with British Airways as a route analyst. Jakub has a long held passion for the aviation industry and we wish him all the best in his new career. Kevin de Leeuw has also decided to leave SWELTRAC after nearly 18 months. Kevin will be joining Westfield and working on their travel plan for their new development in Stratford. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours.

We would like to reassure the network that full support will still be available to all members as we move into the New Year. Support with individual travel plans will continue and SWELTRAC will put together the agenda for the next meeting. However, as discussed at our last meeting, we are suggesting that a business representative takes over the chair of the February meeting in preparation for potential changes after March.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be held on the 17th February at NHS Richmond, Thames House on High Street in Teddington. We would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.